XXIX MUNICIPALITIES The Necessity for Municipal Incorporations. Thus far we have described those forms of local government that are most efficient when administering to the needs of rural and sparsely settled communities. For thickly settled communities, for the thousands of villages and towns1 and cities which have sprung up within the boundaries of counties and towns and townships, a distinct type of local government is provided. It is plain that a large number of people living closely together, say a thousand persons upon a square mile of territory, has special needs and, therefore, should have a government with special powers. Such a densely settled community needs street-lights, sidewalks, sewers, waterworks, fire engines, and the government of the township, or county or town within which it is located cannot furnish these things conveniently. It also needs special officers of government clothed with special powers. As long as it is governed precisely as the thinly settled region around it, it will suffer. Its taxes will be greater than the benefits which it receives in return; its citizens will often act without regard to the public welfare or comfort; its sidewalks will be unpaved, its streets will be unlighted; its offenses against the health and the peace and the good order of the community will be The word "town" is frequently used to denote simply a collection of houses and in this sense it is used here. The New England town is sometimes a purely agricultural area without so much as a considerable cluster of houses within its borders. committed, and there will be neither law nor officers to hinder. The State, as we have seen, comes to the relief of such a community and confers upon it the privilege of a municipal eorporation. Nearly one half of the people of the United States live under some form of municipal government. The Two Classes of Municipalities. Municipal corporations, for convenience of treatment, may be divided into two classes. In the first class may be included all those chartered communities that have a simple form of organization, limited local powers, and a small population, although population of itself is an an untrustworthy guide for their classification. Such communities bear different names in different parts of the country. In Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania they are called boroughs. In the Southern States they are generally called towns,1 while in the West they are usually known as villages. The number of municipalities of this class in the United States is considerably more than ten thousand. The second class of municipalities is the cities. A city is almost always an enlarged town or village, and in outward appearance it is sometimes difficult to distinguish a small city from a large town, although between the governments of the two there is a sharp difference. The government of the city is more complex than that of the town, its powers are greater, its officers are more numerous, and its local independence is more clearly defined. At what point in its growth a town or village shall cast off its simple organization and assume the dignity of cityhood depends upon State law. In many States a place must have ten thousand or more inhabitants before it is entitled to the privileges of a city, while in other States we find cities with less than three thousand inhabitants. Altogether there are in the United States about one thousand cities. 1In Indiana they are called towns. Villages, Boroughs, Towns. It is customary to give a community a municipal charter whenever its population becomes large enough and dense enough to justify a separate organization. In many States when a district of less than a square mile in extent comes to have as many as three hundred inhabitants it is entitled under a general law to a village or town charter, and this it usually obtains from a judge of a court, or from a secretary of state. In a few States, however, there are no general laws in reference to municipal corporations, and in these the legislature grants special charters giving to each municipality such a charter as it (the legislature) thinks it ought to have. The organization and powers of a village (or town, or borough) do not differ widely in the different States. Most of the officers are elected by the voters of the village. The governing body consists of a president, or mayor, or chief burgess, and a body of three or more trustees or burgesses or commissioners. In addition to these there is always a clerk, and frequently a treasurer, tax collector, a constable, a justice of the peace and a board of street commissioners. The village government usually renders the following services : (1) It keeps the peace. (2) It holds a court for the trial of minor civil and criminal cases. (3) It keeps the streets in order and provides good sidewalks. (4) It lights the streets. (5) It furnishes a supply of water. (8) It purchases apparatus for the extinguishing of fires. The Organization of Cities. Since cities are controlled by the State legislature there are not only great differences in their organization in different parts of the Union, but even in the same State it is sometimes impossible to find two cities with the same form of government. It is difficult, therefore, to give a general description of a city that is satisfactory. If a certain city be selected as a type and described, it may be that by the time the description appears in print the city will have an entirely new government, and one that is in no wise typical, for a city today may have a government in which power is distributed among a number of officials after the manner of a State government (p. 170) and to-morrow its charter may be changed and all executive power be placed in the hands of one man. Notwithstanding this diversity and instability, most of our cities in the outlines of their organization follow the historic type: most of them have a legislature which generally bears the name of city council, and most of them have an executive department at the head of which stands a mayor. I. The City Council. This body is the original governing body of the city. In recent years it has undergone many changes, and at present both its form or organization and its powers are as variable as the temper of legislatures, or as the theories of municipal reformers. The following statements in reference to the organization of the city council apply to most cities: (1) It is a representative body, its members being elected from municipal divisions called wards. (2) In large cities it consists of two divisions or houses, sometimes called the first and second branches, sometimes the board of aldermen and the board of councilmen. a few large cities the council consists of a single body. In (3) The term of office of a councilman may be as short as one year, but is never longer than four years. (4) The members of the lower branch have a shorter term of office than those of the upper branch. (5) The upper branch is considerably smaller than the lower branch. The council as the legislature of the city regulates the almost innumerable activities of the city government. A persual of its proceedings as reported in the daily newspaper will show how closely its actions are connected with the daily life of the urban resident. Its laws, called ordinances, affect profoundly the health, safety, peace, comfort, prosperity, intelligence and morality of the city. II. The Mayor. The organization of the excutive department of the city resembles that of the State. At the head is the mayor elected by the people for a term varying from one to four years. The powers and duties of the mayor within the city are comparable to those of the governor within the State. There is a tendency just at present to place in the mayor's hands far greater power than he has ever heretofore possessed. The supremacy that is generally supposed to belong to legislative bodies is passing from the council and is being lodged with the executive. The most noticeable loss of power which the council suffers where the policy of a strong mayoralty prevails is connected with the all-important subject of taxation. It has long been the custom for the charter or a special law of the State legislature to state the kind of taxes a city may raise, and to name a rate beyond which it may not go (p. 286), but within these limitations municipal taxation has always been entrusted to the council. Under several recent charters the taxing power has been virtually taken from the council and bestowed upon the mayor. This has been done by creating a Board of Estimates of which the mayor is a member and over which he may exert a controlling influence if he chooses, for he appoints a majority of the members. This board makes estimates of the money that is required to conduct the city government and submits these to the city council. The council may lower the estimates but it cannot exceed them. This is a plain encroachment of the executive upon the legislative department; it gives to the board the positive power of making the law in reference to taxation and leaves to the council a negative power that may be compared to the veto. III. Municipal Executive Departments. Associated with the mayor in the executive branch there are numerous |